>> see if i can get up closer. >> he's going to go in a ditch pretty quick. >> i thought it was quite strange. heather: isn't that perfect? a red pontiac sunbird! the boy said he took the car because he wanted to see his dad. bill: i said he said son, it's time for a wooping! >> ht health have a good day, nice working with you, bill. bill: you too. heather: have a great day. jenna: hi everybody, thank you very much for joining us, i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon scovment we're here in the fox news room and "happening now", dozens of dangerous terrorists on the loose after a dramatic prison break in yemen, 40 al-qaeda militants escapeing in a carefully choreographed attacks they overpowered guards, seized their weapons, just as bands of armed attackers descended on prisoners from the outside. reena ninan is following the story from our jerusalem bur

oarks who are the prisoner, how did they get out, reena? >> they're part of al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula. dozens escaped in southern yemen. what's interesting for the past two days, yemen state tv has reported that government forces have been battling al-qaeda for respect and the reports on this jail break are coming from government officials which leads us to believe there's a possibility we've seen with this whole entire arab unrest that when the leaders start to believe they're losing power sud beenly we hear about the jail breaks, that the crimes are released on to the streets. we asked that with hosni mubarek and also in libya with mo maqaddafi. it's interesting to see how this plays out, jon. jon: it seems like yemen is completely out of control, the president is out of the country after that attack, the progovernment force, the antigovernment forces, still going at it, and no winner yet. >> yeah, well, it was interesting today, we were just hearing recently that one of the archrivals of saleh actually met with one of his officials today. we'll see whether there's

any movement on that. but actually, right now president abdullah saleh is in saudi arabia, he went there seeking medical treatment after his compound was bombed. both saudis and the u.s. have been trying to put pressure on him not to return to yemen, but the people around him, jon, say that he is determined to come back to yemen. jon. jon: reena ninan, reporting live for us. thanks reena. jenna: a fox news alert on a story we've been watching closely on "happening now" and on fox news. there is a report that there's an arrest in the killing of four people at a long island pharmacy. remember this story from earlier this week? it happened on sunday. there's the photo that we got, potentially, of the suspect. i'm going to be a little careful with this report. the local police are backing off of it. they're not confirming that there has been an arrest or a suspect taken into custody. but the "new york post", who is also owned by our parent company, is reporting there is an arrest. as we get more information, we'll bring that to you

certainly. in the meantime president obama will lay out his plan for what's being called the final phase of the afghanistan war. he's expected to announce a withdrawal of up to 10,000 troops and half could be home by autumn. again, some reports are saying this. the white house is keeping quiet on the exact numbers until the president makes that official announcement tonight in the prime time speech. will we actually get numbers? let's talk to mike emanuel at the white house. you have been working your sources on this. what have you learned in the -- about the face of the drawdown? >> the president is expected to announce 10,000 troops will come down from afghanistan by the end of this calendar year and the rest of the 23,000 remaining surge forces will be out by the end of summer 2012. so that is a compromise, if you will, not giving the commanders everything they want, not giving some of his political adviser, including vice president biden, everything they want. as for the speech, here's white house spokesman jay

carney: >> the president will keep the commitment he made in december 2009 to begin the draw down of u.s. forces from afghanistan next month. there are a lot of factors that go into this decision, factors that he has considered deeply and seriously. >> reporter: among the factors, the impact the surge has had on al-qaeda, also the impact in terms of turning the corner, in terms of momentum against the taliban. again, we do expect the president to announce some numbers tonight in a ten minute or so speech, jenna. jenna: that address as you mentioned, hours away, but there's still plenty of critics already. tell us about that. >> well, the interesting thing is the president is going to get hammered most likely from his own party. there are a lot of democrats who are saying we want to hear from him, when the war will be over all together, when all of our troops will be out. here's one critic, congress jim mcgovern. >> i want to know and my constituents want to know

how is this war going to come to an end. it is the longest war in our history, we're borrowing $8.2 billion a month to pay for it. >> so it's not just democrats, as well, there are also some fiscally conservative republicans who are worried about the price tag, jenna. jenna: we'll continue to follow this, mike, thank you very much. of course, everyone can catch the president's address on afghanistan right here on the fox news channel. we'll bring that to you live tonight, 8:00 p.m. eastern time with bret baier. jon: there is a bizarre new twist in the meantime in the casey anthony murder trial. take a live look inside the orlando courtroom right now. there she sits, stonefaced as usual. prosecutors say a former inmate at the same jail as casey anthony had a toddler who drowned in a pool at her parent's home. it is a story strangely similar to the defense theory of caylee anthony's death, that the little girl drowned at the anthony home and her grandfather helped cover up the accidental

death. is this all a coincidence? phil keating is covering the trial, he joins us live outside the courthouse. phil. >> reporter: jon, according to that other inmate's parents contacted here in the orlando area last night by fox news, everybody back in that year, 2009, when casey anthony was sharing the same cell block with april walen, according to the parents, april walen said all of the other female inmates very well knew of her own personal tragic story. in 2009, april walen, for five days and casey anthony were in the same area of the orange county jail, in two -- 2007, wa -- walen's son drowned in the swimming pool. she spoke directly with casey anthony, but not necessarily about her own son drowning, but everyone knew of the story. unclear whether prosecutors will talk about the drowning angle,.

an fbi geologist says no soil from the caylee crime scene matched her mother's shoes. >> there are only three that that's a significant amount of soil that we could actually do a comparison with. >> and the only three that appeared to be dirty, the soil from there differed from the soil off of suburban drive? >> that's correct. >> reporter: but with each expert witness brought by the defense, today and yet today, their defense continues to be gutted and minimized and jesh ashton's brutally effective cross-examination like here after an fbi witness this morning says she tested for nine drugs in caylee's hair, zan axe, hipnol an other sleeping agents and found none. >> determining whether someone had been given a drug or not a negative result doesn't answer that question? >> no, it does not. >> reporter: jeff ashton also poking holes in other

testimony, for example, just moments ago, there was a defense witness on the stand who did his own hair samples in casey anthony's trunk, did not find any evidence of chloroform and on cross-examination, jeff ashton said didn't you do those tests many days after the trunk liner and spare tire cover had long been removed and he concedes, yes. currently on is an fbi chemist who testified for the prosecution early ner the trial, he's now being questioned by jose baez who began by asking him about a certain piece of evidence, jeff ashton jumped up, objection, that is not evidence presented in this trial, the judge then asks baez, is it evidence, he said well, it's in the possession of the sheriff's department, the judge asks again, but is it evidence, has it been introduced into the trial, he said no, then they had a bench conference, so jose baez, having a rough day, getting scolded by the judge there. jon: sounds like a comedy of errors. how much longer is the

defense expected to go? >> the defense was originally going to take about a week for their case, that would have had them wrapping by wednesday, thursday, friday of this week, monday, things were tossed out and things have been moving more slowly than anticipated due in part to the effective cross-examinations. the judge made a comment yesterday, tend looks like we'll probably be going at least through next week. jon: phil keating, thanks. jenna: molotov cocktail, terrorizing one community for a second straight night. why this is a dangerous case of deja vu. also a major announcement from the straw poll wear, we posed your questions to the gop contender. ron paul will be here live, taking your questions from the town hall. get your questions in by joining our chat, fox news.com, america's asking. harris, you're checking out the stories that some of our viewers are voting for.

>> reporter: yeah, want everybody to pick the must-see video for the end of our show by going to foxnews.com, then the happening now page, on the righthand side, half way down, you'll see the stories to choose from. the first is a shoutout for people who sent e-mails into us, about what was going on nearby fox news headquarters not long ago in times square. i'll give you a hint, namas testimony e, and there were thousands of people. it's a fascinating vid oavment maybe you want to learn more about t rex, the biggest and badest and best of all the dinosaurs. they made an interesting find about t rex, sort of the dinosaur revealed. or maybe you want to know about the dog who's been told to put that bone down, you got to lose some weight. how do you get a dog to lose weight? he's one of the most obese dog necessary the world. if you want to see that, go to happening know, and then choose. for now, if it's happening now, you want to be right with us. stay close.

yuen jen welcome back, everybody. we have new video and information just crossing our international desk in the newsroom. take a look at this. that was the scene in bell fax, northern ireland, catholics and prot instants fighting in the streets, throwing homemade bombs, attack police vans responding to the riots. it's taking place in a small catholic community, the catholics say the attacks were unprovoked, prot instants insist they were retaliating after teens attacked homes in a prot instant part of the city. some saying this is a dangerous case of deja vu. in syria, amateur video showing clashes between pro and antigovernment demonstrators. we have protests like this one taking place in three syrian cities today, there

are reports at least three were killed in this particular protest. it's tough for us to verify from the amateur video. there are also reports security forces opened fire on the antigovernment demonstrators calling for the present to step down. jon right now, there's a group of rogue hackers making good on a threat to take their cyber attacks to a whole new level. the so-called lulu security group claiming responsibility for targeting the government site of brazil and brazil's president. this group now claims it's pat nerd with other online hackers to access sensitive information. john lusitch is a security expert and president of e forensics. the scary part here is that this lulsek as they call it, apparently it's a combination of lol or laughter and security.

lolsec wants to get together with this largeler and pelly dangerous group anonymous they're hack. brad: i believe the name is coming from they're laughing at your security. when you look at what i've been attacking, they've been attacking websites. websites are by nature insecure. being able to break into something you're supposed to get to, it happens because of system vulnerabilities. not because someone has done something wrong. when someone is able to access that, they can exploit that and get it throughout your whole network. leave them on a hosting facility. these guys are doing nothing that anybody can't do. >> you're not particularly impressed. >> i'm not impress what sore. can they take this to the next level, absolutely, will they get caught, absolutely. one of the things the government needs to do is get serious about this. we need to come up with when you attack a government website, 20 years in jail

and that first guy they catch is going to roll over and give up the other guys. these guys are not doing this to help with security. i have been involved in infiltrating underground hackers since the late 1980s and they do it for ego, they love to see their name up in lights. jon: there was a teenager arrested in scotland, thought to be part of this group. >> the group is saying no, that's not him. okay, we'll let him go. i don't think so. let's say for one instance that that guy is innocent this, is the kind of damage they're causing. when sony, i think they said this latest hack cost 170 million, who do you think is going to get laid off? people in the company, trying to make up for that 170 million. these attacks are hurting the little guy they say they're trying to protect. they're not doing that. they are hurting people. jon: when they go after the cia's website, you say that's intended to be interactive, intending -- intended to be available to the public and it doesn't

take a great deal of skill. >> no, and the rope being there, are so many scripts out there, hacking tools out there, these are the guys not sitting out there going like this, these are the guys downloading programs that do it for them. jon: their argument they're doing this to help out, hollow argument. >> they're hurting people. jo jon thanks very much. >> thank you. jon: and again, your point is, some of these networks need to secure their operations better. >> it all comes down to network design and how they lay that out. that's going to be the number one case. jon: texas representative and presidential candidate, jenna? >> jenna: thank you very much, jon, i'll take it. ron paul is up next. he's taking your questions. go to foxnews.com/happening now. there he is! hello, congressman. we'll be right back with him. click on america's asking to get involved. we'll take your questions to the congressman right after the break.

jenna: america's asking and you guys are all over our chat today. we're putting your questions topical candidates, including starting with a question about national debt. today, the headline is this: a new report from the congressional budget office had some very sobering news for really every single one of us, including projections that government spending as a share of our economy will increase by nearly 70 percent by 2035. historically it's around 20 percent. that's a big jump. republican congressman and presidential candidate ron paul is here to take your questions. congressman, let's start off with the headline and get your thoughts on this. if you were leact dollars president what is the number one thing you would do to help fix the economy? >> well, the number one thing that i can do without going through the congressional process as the president, the president has authority over foreign

policy more than anything else so indirectly he can help the economy by bringing troops home and stop spending money on naing this empire, and that would be a big help. are you are talking directly with the mon ce, you have to address monetary policy, tax policy, spending policy, we have to change the attitude of the people on what they believe the government should be doing. we cannot run the programs that we have today, believing the government can take care of us from cradle to grave, the welfare state, nor can we endorse the principle of the warfare state where we have endless wars. until we look at those major problems you can't really improve the economy. jenna: i'll take the welfare state and war state and we have good questions on both. let's start with the welfare state. keith baldwin says dr. paul, you come off to many as radical and therefore can get marginalized. how do you plan to address social security and medicare without scaring off voters? >> well, in a very practical way. i've never voted to spend one penny out of medicare or

medicaid because i don't vote for the appropriation bills, so if we are going to pretend and try to make the programs sole vent you cannot spend any of that money in the general revenue and i also have bills that would make it illegal to do that. and the other part of the program, though i don't believe in the entitlement system, i do believe in priorities, so saving hundreds of billions of dollars from overseas, the department of education, the department ofing in, many other things, you can cut in those areas and tie the people over, whether it's their medical benefits or social security, because there is no money there. and i believe there is a transition, but unfortunately, you can't get a consensus, because some who care about fiscal conservatism don't believe that should apply to the militarism around the world. if you can get the people to endorse these ideas and correspond -- >> jenna: but let's talk about because you're talking about shifting some funds here and you mentioned the overseas factor. sean on twitter was talking to me about this interview with you and he said he

wanted to ask you about beyond afghanistan, what's your stance about closing or maintaining military bases around the world? are there particular areas that you specifically already know that you'd like to close the bases that we have? >> yeah, all of them. jenna: all of them? >> yes. why are we in korea? we've been there since i've been in high school. why are we in japan? we've been there since world war ii. why are we in germany, subsidizing their defense by staying in germany. why are we in five wars in the middle east? we'd be much better off. we're less safe because of this, we're going broke. why stay in any of those places? there's no economic or military advantage to be -- for us to be so involved, trying to make other people live the way we do. jenna: some would say, congressman, there's a difference in being defensive or being offensive when it comes to protecting our country. some believe that we can be more defensive and when there's a threat we can defend against it, others

believe we can be offensive which is part of the reason there are military bases overseas, so that we're leading in those areas. why do you believe that that's not the way to go? >> because that's the way dictators work. so say it casually that we should consider being offensive, that's what dictators do. this whole idea that was encapsulated with the last administration that we endorsed preventive war, preemptive war, we go to war to prevent somebody from attacking us, that is endless war and for casual reasons, without declaration. i think that is so dang rurks we should have a defense. we should defend our country. but when you talk about bases because we might need an offensive war, i consider that absolutely unamerican. yuen jen on the issue of the past administration and current administration, we have a comment coming from gc, and he would like to know if you could debate the president on any topic, what would it be, and why? >> well, there are too many

good ones. but i would start with foreign policy, why did he say that he would start bringing troops home, and immediately increased our troops. so foreign policy overall, both administrations were the very same so i would challenge him on that but how could i avoid wanting to challenge him on monetary policy, when we need money, just print it, running up decifits, the whole economic program is so underlandish that it's led to this decifit crisis and unless we deal with that, nothing is going to happen. things are just going to get that much worse. so whether it's economic policy or foreign policy, it's all the same, it's the size of government. why not shrink government and follow our constitution. jenna: congressman, you're giving us another shot, this run for president. there are folks that are already in the race, potential candidates such as the governor of your state of texas here. curious, who do you view as your greatest competition, and why do you believe this time is the time for you to

jump into this race again? >> the country has moved in my direction because i've been talking about these things for a lot of years and the financial bubble that so many of us are worried about did collapse and now we're going to move into inflation and a monetary crisis, so all these events, people are sick and tired of the groping at airports and endless war, everything is moving in the direction of protecting our civil liberty. as far as who do i see as the greatest threat, i put them all in one category. i think they all fit into the category of promoting the status quo, they don't challenge foreign policy, they don't challenge the federal reserve system, they don't really challenge the decifit. if they did and they cared, we wouldn't have these kinds of decifits. so i would say there's no one individual that i sense as my number one challenger. i think they run together and for my benefit they're going to divide the establishment vote and we'll do quite well.

jenna: i'm sure they have their thoughts as well and that's why we're inviting them to the town haw. there's a resuming that you could be asking judge napolitano as your vice presidential candidate. >> that would be premature, but somebody caught me off guard and said who would you suggest to work with you and run as a vice presidential candidate and i really admire the judge napolitano! so i mentioned him! but i didn't even confide in him, which is probably illegal or something. but i think he would be good in any administration! i think he is a -- he would be grand on the supreme court. jenna: judge, did you know that congress -- i had no idea! we learn something new every day, congressman. we'll pass that along. the judge will appreciate hearing that. we look forward to having you back, sir, thank you. jon: andrew napolitano, attorney general!

jenna: there you go, who knew? >> jon: speaking of things legal, we're monitoring the casey anthony trial, there she sits, listening to the testimony in that orlando courtroom, and a stunning bombshell regarding that defense theory that caylee drowned in her grandparents' swimming pool. our legal panel weighs in. also you love your dsh washer, right? it gets your dishes spark ling clean. maybe not. a dirty little secret that may be hiding, even thriving, in your dishwasher. [ male announcer ] do you know how you will react

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jenna: right now prosecutors are looking into a car chase with a bizarre twist. jon scott has nothing to do witness he was not the driver, harris is that right. >> reporter: jon is young looking but i doubt that he's seven. this case is unreal. the prosecutors up in michigan, jenna this the case. they are looking at things like who taught this little boy how to drive. when you see the video you'll understand. he's very young. police said, yeah we've seen drivers under 15, never this young. this is dash cam video apparently, obviously, rather. this little boy, and of course because he is seven we will not use his name, was out driving his mom's car. she was working a night shift, and apparently he was just

trying to get to his dad's, who by the way is 110 miles away. i have not been able to ascertain if this is a shared custody situation or what. the seven-year-old was in the care of his mom. she was working the night shift. she had no idea, the little boy and the car were gone. someone spotted the driver on the road and called the police. they trailed after him. their greatest fear, it was a rural area, not very well lit. it wasn't late, late, obviously as you can see not a bright sunny day here. they were concerned this he took his eyes off the road for even a split second he might not be able to recover. he was not that tall. you have to question how well was he working the peddles. they trailed after him at some points going well above 50 miles per hour. he's okay, no other drivers on the road. the prosecutors looking at the case in-kind of a family district way, just why was no one with this kid and why was he driving. back to you guys. jenna: good questions, harris,

thank you. jon: a defense witness in the casey anthony trial testifying in morning there was no evidence of decomposition in casey anthony's car trunk. the trial is ending early today because of a scheduling matter, and now prosecutors are looking into some, well, strangely coincidental new evidence. they say this woman, a former inmate at the same jail as casey anthony, april whelan had a toddler who drowned in the grandparents swimming pool in 2007. that is very similar to little caylee drowning in their swimming pool and the grandfather covered up the evidence. we have meg swig her and joey jackson. does she testify in this case. >> i don't think she is going on

the stand for a couple of witnesses. i don't think the testimony should come in due to hearsay issues. she didn't talk directly to casey anthony. i think this is a red herring the prosecution is throwing out. the defense is saying, hey look if we know of anything coming up we are following the discovery rules, unlike you defense. i think they are doing a couple of things here. the witness will not come on because of credibility issues too. where did we meet you? owe, in the jail. i could destroy you as a defense attorney very easily on the stand. she is not going to come on the stand, i can guarantee it. jon: the suggestion, joey from the prosecution is that essentially casey anthony tried to borrow applausable explanation as to what happened to her daughter here from another jail inmate. >> you know what is interesting, jon you started off the segment and you said it was strangely coincidental. the fact that there would be an inmate housed in a dorm with her in 2009 when she was there for

five years who happened to have a 15-month-old child to died and drowned and the body was then discovered by the grandfather. listen, all of us have wondered where this wild defense theory has emanated from and now i think we know. to meg's point and very well argued by her, but look at the end of the day this is probative, it comes in, it's not hearsay,. >> no. >> it's an exception to the rule. here is why the credibility of the defendant doesn't matter, jon. it doesn't matter because we know and it is proven fact that this 15-month-old side, isaiah whelan died. that is established and true. jon: that is established, joey. but meg as far as i know it's never been established that april whelan ever spoke to casey anthony. >> exactly. i don't think legally and technically she is going to come in. i do agree with mr. jackson over there that this story is scary similar to what casey has told her lawyers. pathological liars get their stories and they pull them straight from other stories and

craft them to their own. i do think there may be some truth to the story, truth to miss whelan's story stolen by casey but i don't think it's coming into this trial. >> it's coming in, meg. >> no way, joey, no way. i'd make a date with you joey, no way. >> the point of the matter is about her not having direct contact it doesn't matter. you've heard the expression, we've heard it through the grapevine. you don't have to have direct contact to learn about something like this happening, and then saying, hum, maybe that would work for me, and then all of a sudden during opening statements her lawyer is saying, this was an accidental drowning. this was not an accidental drowning, it was premeditated, intentional murder, she will be convicted. >> she will be convicted. jon: a lot of stories get passed around in jail cell blocks that is for sure.

meg strickler, joey jackson thank you. jenna: we are awaiting president obama's announcement on the details of the troop drawdown in afghanistan. we haveee action from a prominent member of the committee, lindsey graham will weigh in. this single mom takes a stand right or wrong, she sees thieves take off with loot and takes action. >> i told the cashier, do something, they are leaving. she couldn't do anything, i just said watch my purse. i'm tired of it. our society has to stand up and say, this is not right, we're not going to put up with it, you'll be punished. jenna: that's right, watch my purse. she went out and got them. jon, would you do the same thing. jon: i would like to think i would do the same thing, i don't know, three against one? jenna: that's tough. there is a poll coming up. we want the viewers to weigh in.

incredible details of the story behind the video there. brave woman. jenna: where is your purse by the way. jon:.jon: where is your purse be way. jon: i thought you were watching it. ♪ we're not going too take it ...  

jenna: a major policy speech by the president tonight on afghanistan. he's expected to ao nouns a reduction in troops. here is a look at a new pew survey showing for the first time a majority of americans, 56% of us say that u.s. troops should be brought home as soon as possible. 39% say troops should stay until the situation is stabilized. we are joined by lindsey graham. he's on the armed services committee. he's been to afghanistan more than a dozen times and the only active duty serving member of congress to have been serving in

iraq and afghanistan. taking a look at the poll as an active duty military member i was curious your thoughts on this. i was looking at the polls of americans, i wondered what percentage of americans are active duty military, how many are a part of our armed forces, and it's 1% at best are a part of our armed forces. in world war ii it was 13%. i was wondering your opinion on this. how this is factoring not only into our decisions in washington but our national feelings as well. >> well a lot of people are distanced from the consequences of the war, and i can understand being war weary. we are broke as a nation. you want to make sure that you spend money wisely, and you do have 1% of the people fighting and you want to take very good care of them. but at the end of the day having been to afghanistan a lot two things stand out to me, the ones over there doing the fighting believe they are making progress, and they are patient and they want to make sure when they leave that they never have

to go back. our national security interests will be determined not by the day we left but by what we left behind, and if we rush to the exits because of polling here, then we're going to undercut the progress, and the ticket home for us with honor and security is to leave behind an afghan army and police force that can defend the afghan people against the taliban. we are well on our way but we are not there yet. when the president does tonight, if he takes the political track of trying to basically play to the polls then i think he will put our nation at risk at a time when we are beginning to show success, and can come home in 2014. jenna: at the same time you mentioned that we're broke as a nation. fellow republicans are coming out and saying, we've got to get out of there. how much of a factor is money do you think at this time? is it the number one reason we'd be leaving? >> people are worried about the debt, include me in that, but the number one reason the federal government exists is to defend the nation. what does it cost us since 9/11

when the russians left afghanistan the taliban took over, they invited osama bin laden in as their guest, the rest is history. how much money have we spent as a nation dealing with the consequences of 20 hijackers who planned the attacks in afghanistan? my arguments to the american people is, if we don't see afghanistan's roots and we leave too soon, nobody in the future will help us again and we can't defend ourselves without people helping us. the good news is the afghan people don't want to be ruled by the taliban or al-qaida, they have the will to do the fighting they don't have the capacity. so in terms of money and national security the best investment we can make is to allow people in the region to do the fighting defeat these guys in their backyard rather than them coming over here to attack us on our homeland. jenna: we certainly don't want that again. we'll see what the president has to say tonight when the details

are out and official for all of us. senator i want to switch gears for the moment. a union representative at boeing has filed an ethics complaint against you. this has come to light for all of us within the last 24 hours. background for our viewers the national labor relations board on behalf of the workers is suing boeing for building a plant in your home south carolina. the unions complaint against you is you're pressuring the national labor relations board to drop the suit. to my knowledge you haven't spoken publicly about this ethics complaint. so your response now, sir, what do you have to say about this? >> i don't appreciate people questioning my ethics, that's the process as it exists. this is an effort to intimidate me and shut me up and it's not going to work. i'm standing up for the a little of south carolina to build boeing airplanes and the union complaint against boeing is frivolous. not one person in washington lost their job, no benefits have been reduced in the washington

workforce and the union complaint is trying to shut down the facility in south carolina through the nlrb and move all the jobs back to washington. i want us to do well in south carolina and washington. i am not going to stop fighting this complaint, i have done nothing wrong, and if this complaint is successful you will destroy the ability of american manufacturers to create jobs in this country. what they are complaining of and what they are asking for is outrageous, to complain against me and boeing, both are politically motivated and it's not going to work with me and it's not going to work with boeing. jenna: we are looking forward to following that story also talking to the other side as well. it's a big story as you mentioned senator. thank you very much for joining us once again. i look forward to having you back. >> thank you. jon: summer driving season kicks into high gear, gas prices are falling a bit. it means americans should have a little more cash to spend on other thins they want to buy. will it help the economy as a whole? how do americans view president obama's handling of the economy, some numbers coming up.

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jon: it's the start of summer as you're making plans to hit the road there is a bit of good news at the gasoline pump. aaa reports the average price of gallon of unleaded dropped a penny overnight. a penny, jenna, did you hear that? $3.63 a gallon now. that number not coming close to the $5 that analysts predicted a few months ago. drivers still are paying a dollar more than they were at this time last year and that is no fun. lori rossman is live in the fox newsroom, lori. >> reporter: we can take any good news we can get. gas prices have come down and the good news is analysts are forecasting gas prices to drop even further by another 50-cents or so a gallon. that is all tied to the crude

oil barrel. today crude oil about 94, $94 a barrel but because of weak evening demand and the slowing economy, high supply and the end of qu2 that of course is the fed's attempt to build the economy by throwing more money into it, comes to an end at this month. we'll hear from the fed at the top of the hour to come out on interest rates. for now that means oil prices according to the analysts could come down to about $85 a barrel. stronger dollar means that, again, a weaker dollar means higher oil so a stronger dollar should be barrish for oil prices. as for the president it's good news, yes he has a laundry list of economic would hes out there. high unemployment, deficit and debt problems and of course home equity losses. jon back to you. jon: here in the northeast we are still paying more than 4 bucks a gallon. i filled up yesterday. that wasn't fun. thank you. a serious health threat lurking

in your dishwasher? a new study says it's true, a dangerous fun gus can hide in the same place where we wash our plates, and utensils, et cetera. researchers said 62% of the washers they looked at contained something they called black yeast it's a bug that can attack the lungs. this particular fun gus can survive in hot water, even survive the use of detergents. jenna: great, okay. jon: a little something else for us to worry about. jenna: maybe we could bleach everything, right? dr. siegel said, oh, yeah, maybe you could try that. you may not be able to get all the bleach out. you don't want that taste either. jon: it's like the black algae that wrecked my swimming pool when i was trying to care for it myself in miami. jenna: really. jon: yeah. jenna: jon, i had no idea. jon: i never should have tried that. jenna: you can solve this problem, take out, just take out you don't need a dishwasher,

paper plates. jon: there you go. jenna: her last name is lawless. this outstanding woman sprung into action when she saw a crime going down, three guys stole cases of beer from a store in texas. she saw them walk out of the store without paying. she was angry. she her, she ran outside full speed, jumped on the hood, jumped on the windshield. she wasn't going to get that trio get away. you go, monique, look at her. she was angry. she was a little bruised. she said she had to do something. she was here on fox & friends this morning. >> it wasn't the beer, i wasn't trying to protect wal-mart or anything like that, it was just like you can't continue to do this. where are we headed in society when people just think they can walk in and they deserve, or it's their right to take from others, or do whatever they want to do. there is no repercussion. jenna: police eventually got those guys and they pinned one suspect against the fence with a patrol car as well.

we asked you if you'd do the same thing. it turns out 40% of you said you would give it a shot. jon: good for you and more on her story a little bit later on. jenna: i like monique. go monique. we'll see you after the commercial. ♪ i thought it was over here... ♪ [car horn honks] our outbacalways gets us there... ... sotimes it just takes us a little longer to get back. ♪

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jon: right now in florida the casey anthony murder trial appears to be about ready to wrap-up testimony for the day. the defense calling a forensic geologist and a forensic toxicologist. harris can explain what they brought to the story. >> reporter: you'll see one of them is still on the stand. they are talking right now about hair that was taken from the remains of little 2-year-old caylee anthony, and this particular forensic witness is saying there was no trace of that sample hair showing any drugs, including the chloroform or the sedative that might have been used in the case as the prosecution has talked about. she says hair is not always the best way to test for that any way. this is very, very intricate testimony from the f.b.i. witnesses now that have been

called on day 25 of this case. they were set to take a break. the judge has already said we are going to see a half day because he has something else previously scheduled. normally they are at lunch break but they are going over it with these witnesses who talk about taking every pair of shoes after casey anthony's closet, that's the mom on trial for her life in her daughter's death, she looked at 22 pairs of shoes to see if there was any trace of soil that would match the site where the child's body was found, and one of the witnesses saying that there was kite a bit of soil sample that they could take from at least three pair of shoes. we have not heard yet this morning whether or not there was a match between that and the area where little caylee was found. i'm all over it as news breaks from that courtroom i'll bring it to you. jon and jen a. jon: thanks. hello to you once again. we hope you're going a great

wednesday. i'm jon scott. jenna: hello, everybody i'm jenna lee. newt gingrich is back in the spotlight. the gop presidential candidate heading and event at the atlanta president obama club where he gave a speech on reforming the federal bank a short time ago. jon: two of his top fund-raisers have quit. his campaign said to be a million dollars in the red, plus an embarrassing report reveals his credit line at tiffany's was much higher than previously thought. jenna: chief political correspondent carl cameron is live from washington. is this talk about the federal bank is that where newt gingrich was going before. >> reporter: that's where he was headed. he lives in georgia, it's his hometown state. doesn't have a heck of a lot of money any more. he talked about auditing the federal reserve bank, reforming it aggressively, and repealing the dodd/frank regulatory law

that passed a few years ago during the crisis. mr. gingrich makes the argument that the fed gave out $3 trillion of loan during the crisis and it's unclear where some of the money went. it's ironic he has serious fiscal problems in his campaign. two staffers resigned, fundraisers said they were not collecting a lot of money for him and there was nothing they could do for it. tough stuff for newt gingrich. he talked about it after the prepared remarks at the press club. >> my campaign will be a very grass roots oriented campaign. you can go to newt.org to see it. the news media will be raising money. we'll be a very inexpensive campaign. we are almost precisely from john mccain was in 2007 on the money front and where reagan was by the way. >> reporter: a couple of differences. john mccain had raised a lot of money and spent too much it and fired his staff because he was broke. in this case newt gingrich's staff all quit in part because

in the case of the finance individuals he wasn't raising a lot of money at all. we have reached a benchmark on the 2012 campaign trail today, the first tv advertisement in what is likely to be hundreds of millions of dollars in air war expenditures, perhaps when it's all told a billion ta ads can run across the country. the first one is in iowa, and it's tim pawlenty. it comes for pawlenty when he's trying to raise his name recognition, as well as as the hawk eye state gets ready for michelle bachman's campaign presidential announcement coming up on monday in her home down of waterloo area. the two of them are competing for similar voters. they are being looked over both very closely. jenna: we'll continue to watch it, carl, thank you.

jon: time is running out for congress to come up with some kind of a deal on raising the debt ceiling and avoiding national default. joe biden heads to the hill this afternoon to try to come up with some agreement with the legislators as we get a sobering now report from the nonpartisan budget office. jim engle is live. >> reporter: they are trying to find $2 billion are more. timothy geithner says the negotiators are getting closer. >> we need to make some progress this week to get everybody more confidence that there is framework that has the votes. ultimately what matters is how do we get the votes to pass something in the house and senate. >> reporter: just this morning as you said, jon the

congressional budget office released new figures on debt projections and they are stunning. the cbo says under current law the debt will be 70% of the total economy by the end of this year, the highest since just after world war ii. the historical average is about 20%. the cbo says it's much worse than that, it offers an alternative scenario based on what congress is likely to do and what analysts believe is much more realistic. current law has doctors treating seniors and medicare taking a 30% cut in fees this year, that is not going to happen. that is the so-called doctor fix. current law would also raise taxes on the middle class in two different ways, the expiration of the bush tax cuts and the alternative minimum tax, no way is congress going to do that either. and when cbo factored in what is hike lee the results are stunning. look at this chart, it shows the debt soaring, exceeding 100% of the total economy by 2021, and ballooning to nearly 290% of gdp

by 2035. to have any affect on the frightening trajectory congress needs to act now and that cold reality is what the debt talks are about. for comparison keep in mind that greece, which is being ripped apart by its debt, cutting public spending, cutting government pensions and unemployment soaring it was only about 145% gdp to debt ratio last year, that is not the direction the u.s. wants to go. jon. jon: those are some pretty alarming numbers. thanks. jenna: we have new information on a terrifying near collision at kennedy airport right here in new york city. julie bandaras has been working the story live in the newsroom now. >> reporter: the the jet was cleared for take off and as it was speeding down the runway it was forced to come to a screeching halt to avoid running

into another airplane. this is what it sounded like when the air traffic controller noticed. >> cancel tack off plans. >> all traffic is stopped right now. >> hold the position. >> yeah, hold your position, as you see what is going on. no need to speak about it on frequency. >> reporter: that was followed by a nervous chuckle. according to the faa the egypt air pilot apparently didn't follow air traffic control instructions to hold short of its taxiway and veered into the path of the other plane forcing the other jet to slam on the brakes. the egypt plane was instructed to stay behind a hold line 250 feet behind the runway. while it did cross the line it didn't enter the runway. pilots aboard other planes who witnessed the whole thing radioed in after watching the close call listen to that. >> the two were coming together. that was quite a show. we thought it was going to be a short career.

>> reporter: a very close call indeed. the munich bound airbus pulled off the runway, they checked the brakes who they say were very, very hot. after a top at the airport terminal it did head back to the runway and landed safely in munich. the egypt jet took off 90 minutes after the incident. it headed to cairo. all is fine now but no word exactly how close the two planes actually came to khraoeugd. investigators say that the luftansa plane stopped a considerable distance from the egypt air jet. they are looking at radar replay to determine how the two planes cut it so dangerously close. jenna: when you hear the pilots also talk about watching this happen, that really hits home. more than the story as we get it, julie, thank you. jon: the worst accident in aviation history were two 747's that collided on an runway. new developments in the

disappearance of a indiana university student. what cops are saying about a truck near the spot where lauren spierer was last seen. sad to say more and more officers killed in the line of duty. there seems to be a spike in these kinds of police shootings. what is behind it, and how communities are trying to combat the problem. plus, we're tracking your votes on three top stories. harris has a look at the results so far. >> reporter: people who are watching will be able to determine the must-see video later on "happening now." how they can do that is go to foxnews.com to our home page. you'll see jon and jen a's beautiful picture. click on that. that will take you to "happening now." go down the right hand side, the three pieces of video you get to choose from. not far from time square people wondered what was going on. things like up dog, down dog, cobra. what were they doing, thousands of them in one of the world's busiest cities, right in the

middle of everything, in daylight. do you want to learn more about the revelations about t-rex the dinosaurs, will they put together a giant replica to teach the world about this dinosaur. it's the dog that could lose a few pounds, the obese dog. one of the most obese dogs in the world. they want to try him to get on a diet. you can click on it. i would normally tell you what the results are right now, but i don't want to tip it. we'll come right back. # are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

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jon: new information on a disturbing trend you might have noticed. the number of killings of police officers is way up. it has spiked 41% all across the country. experts cite the bad economy, brazen criminals. a lack of respect for the uniform or letting the mentally ill get a hold of guns. in the pacific northwest brass

is asking cops to be kinder. dan springer live from seattle, dan. >> reporter: perhaps the opposite reaction you expect when you see the alarm numbers, 88 officers across the u.s. killed in the line of duty, 38 of them gunned down, the 41% increase there. departments across the nation are responding differently. some are calling for more caution, some are calling for cops to get tougher. but in washington state they are asking for training for cops to be nicer. >> it connects human beings as people. and secondly, and probably more importantly it begins this process of changing the image, changing the viewpoint that people have of the police. >> reporter: seattle p. d. and the king county sheriff's department will be the first in the nation to use the lead police training. it stands for listen, explain, equity and dignity. it's the brainchild of nyu professor tom tyler who is pushing cops to focus on what he

calls procedural justice. >> they do have the ultimate authority, they are just exercising that authority through a fairer procedure that leads people to feel like they have a chance to explain their side of the story. >> reporter: beat cops say they already get several dozen hours of training on verbal judo, calmly talking suspects down. >> if we have to act we have to act and if i can't say please or explain to you the reason why i'm doing what i'm doing, then i'm not going to, because i'm going to have to make sure that i'm safe. >> reporter: and the biggest worry that i heard from police officers on the streets is how will the public perceive this kinder, gentler policy? they worry that the people on the streets will take this as an invitation to debate, or to challenge the authority of police officers, and that they feel, the police that is, they feel that could lead to more confrontation and even more violence on the streets. jon. jon: let's hope they can come up with something that puts an end to it. dan springer in seattle, thank

you. jenna: speaking of violence in the streets, there was a very grim discovery in san francisco where a body was found. how police think it got there. we have details on this very strange mystery ahead. the very latest testimony in the casey anthony murder trial, we have instant analysis from an attorney very close to the family coming up next.

jon: right now a police investigation is underway after the discovery of a man's body in san francisco bay. some pretty strange circumstances surrounding this case. harris is on it. >> reporter: so strange, really what they are saying, marina green, an area of san francisco, they say they need the public's help to solve this one. we have a tip line coming up. let me tell you what happened here.

there was a trail of blood at buchanan and beach streets it started. a witness noticed it late monday night, called police. they followed the trail of blood right outside the post office they say. followed the trail to a wooded area and found the body of a 19-year-old person there. they've been trying to figure out who the 19-year-old man is and how he might have got even there by canvassing the area. they haven't had a whole lot of luck right now, again, they are depending on the public's help. here is what they know. the victim apparently stabbed although they say they won't know the exact cause of death until the medical examiner releases that. an etched weapon of some sort was used on most of the wounds according to the police chief in san francisco. here is the tip line. for anybody in that area it's the marina green neighborhood at beach and buchanan streets, right by the post office. anybody who might have seen something. or you can text a message to

tip411. back to you. jon: harris, thaopbgs. jenna: moving to a different case now the defense in the casey anthony murder trial presenting another round of forensic evidence today hoping to chip away at the prosecution's case. each expert witness for the defense has seemingly had their testimony neutralized by some effective cross-examination. it's raising some questions about the defense team yet again. we've heard no evidence to back up casey's story that little caylee drowned or that casey was sexually abused. brad conway is a former defense attorney and a former attorney for the anthony family. he's joined us a few times taking a look at the defense team. those are two claims, very important claims central to the defense's case here, that casey was sexually abused and that caylee drowned, and that the father and grandfather, george, your former client, was involved in some way, yet none of the

evidence, or testimony thus far has really dealt too much with that. what do you make of this strategy by the defense? >> it's always good to be on a fox network. the key point here is that the defense has told the jury, we know what happened, and having told them that their defense, their presentation has to be consistent with their theory of defense, and it hasn't been. as they go through the forensic experts and they are trying to score points, they are basically going with a reasonable doubt defense, not a, we know what happened defense. and they are not scoring points. i think they are going backwards in their defense because jeff ashton is able to effectively cross-examine these experts and neutralize their testimony. jenna: as far as casey, we are taking a look at her on the screen now, there is a question always, and it's coming up day after day, brad, so i'll ask it again about her taking the

stand. one of the things the defense has admitted is that she is a liar. can the defense actually put her on the stand when also admitting that she lies? >> jenna, i think that they have to put her on the stand. they are the ones that have said to the jury, this is what happened, you're going to hear evidence of this. but the only person that is going to be able to give that evidence is casey anthony herself. there is nobody else on the planet that can support her theory. they've got to put her on. they've acknowledged that she is a liar. they've shown videotapes, statements, and brought other witnesses in that support the fact that she is a liar, so what do they have to lose at this point? they never should have put the burden on themselves, but having done that now they've got to follow through. jenna: what is next? >> what's next will be finishing up with these forensic experts, and then getting into the lay testimony, and of course one of those lay witnesses would in my

opinion be casey anthony. they may recall george anthony, they may recall cindy anthony or lee anthony, and who knows who else they will call. they've been very disorganized and disjointed so it's hard to predict. jenna: that's one of of the questions that always comes up. is this strategy, is this type of confusion a strategic move or is this inexperience? and it's still one that it seems like a question that we're not going to necessarily answer today, brad. thank you very much. appreciate your expertise, talk to you soon. jenna: you're welcome, jenna. jon: president obama preparing to announce his plan for our troops in afghanistan. we are about seven and a half hours away from hearing what he intends to do. in just moments we'll talk with a couple of lawmakers who have been there and have very strong opinions on the way forward. and many of you are weighing in on our must-see moment. will it be the plus-sized pooch, mind over madness in time square, or eye to eye with a

t-rex. which one gets voted today's winner? we'll have the answer coming up. ♪ the winner takes it all. the winner takes it all. ♪ and a choice. take tylenol arthritis and maybe up to s in a day... or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. happy chopping. has twice the calcium of the leading yogurt. that's 50% of the daily value. pass on the news and make sure you and everyone you know is getting the calcium they need. ♪

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lifelock is there to help fix it, plus you're backed by our $1 million service guarantee. that's right. a $1 million service guarantee. don't wait until you become the next victim. call now to try lifelock free for 30 days. that's right, 30 days free! and if you're not completely satisfied, notify lifelock and you'll never pay a cent. use promo code safenow. all it takes is for the bad guys to get a hold of just one piece of your personal information to wreak havoc on your life. get the protection you need right now! call now to try lifelock free for a full 30 days. use promo code: safenow. plus you'll also get the $1 million service guarantee. don't wait. act now. call now! lifelock service guarantee cannot be offered to residents of new york. jon: a fox news weather alert. sirens are sounding right now as we speak in minot,

north dakota, warning 11,000 residents they must evacuate immediately because of imminent flooding. water from the river is beginning to overflow the levees there. janice dean is keeping an eye on it from the extreme weather center. jd? >> they were warned about this river. i know we have video. folks have been sandbagging in anticipation of this river coming over its dikes and as jon, mentioned. thousands of residents in this region of north dakota. minot, have to evacuate immediately. they were early told 6:00 is the deadline. now it appears that water from the river is overflowing the dikes protecting the entire city. this is an ongoing problem obviously across the northern plains and the midwest and these poor people have to evacuate immediately. can you just imagine, if you lived in this small town? our hearts and prayers go out to all the folks in minot. we'll bring you the very

latest. as for the potential of flooding and severe weather we have a slow moving system across the midwest and cold front with it bringing potential for showers and thunderstorms. some of these could be severe, potentially severe especially in the afternoon hours. we get the daytime heating. anywhere from the ohio river valley mid-atlantic back through the gulf coast states, that's where we could see the hail, strong wind and potential for tornados. the other big story? the incredible heat. we're already into day one of the summertime blues and look at some of these temperatures. incredible heat across phoenix and tucson, well over 100 and 110 degrees. we also have heat advisories if you believe it, they're used to this kind of heat, but excessive heat advisories for parts of southwest california in towards arizona. these are where we're dealing with wildfires. so the heat is not going to be helpful in containment of these wildfires. of course the flooding, back to the flooding story. we still have the potential

for flooding across the missouri river and in towards the mississippi river. this is an ongoing story that we'll be following all summer long, jon scott. we'll bring you very latest. just terrible news from minot, north dakota, this morning. jon: a lot of snow still left to melt up in the rockies and that is a big part of the problem. >> we had winter weather advisory yesterday, jon scott in the first day of summer. jon: yeah. jd thanks. >> good to see you. jenna: well, they say nothing is certain in life but death and taxes right? always gives you a warm fuzzy feeling when you hear that. when the economy on life-support is raising tax as good thing or a death blow? that brings us to part 3 of our new series on ten ways to save the economy. doug mckelway is live in washington with number three. doug, this is a big debate when it comes to economists. they're very divided over this issue. it is hard to reach a middle ground. either you believe in raising taxes or you don't.

>> that's pretty much it. back to you, jenna. jenna: there you go. >> you're absolutely right. economists have been divided as far as back as 1776 when adam smith penned his seminal work called the wealth of nations. smith said of his fellow man, quoting by pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society. those words are a fundamental tenet of conservative economists and subject of considerable consternation on liberal economists. here are two perspectives on wealth and lowering taxes. >> wealth is created by people pursuing their self-interest and using their skill and ability to try to better their life. as adam smith was saying right, it's not by trying to do the good of other people who by pursuing yourself interest that you create wealth. >> i think in the short-run, if we were to lower taxes that would provide some stimulus to demand. it would put more money in

people's pockets, give them more money to spend. now i have to say the problem with it is that we have these huge budget deficits. so, while, own the one hand you might be contributing postively to demand, on the other hand you're contributing more to this problem or as much to this problem of the big deficit. >> history is full of examples that support both views. the reagan years for example, saw tax cuts and a growing economy. the clinton years saw tax hikes and a growing economy. so conclusions are difficult to come by. then throw into the mix the law of unintended consequences. one example back in 1991 congress passed a tax on luxury items with the understanding that the wealthy could best afford to pay for them. the tax was imposed on jewelry costing over $10,000, cars costing over $30,000 and boats costing over $100,000. but the ultimate effect and purely unintended was that luxury carmakers like bmw and mercedes lost 20% of

their market share the pleasure boat industry laid off 19,000 people and they weren't rich people. these were laborer, craftsmen, woodworkers, blue-collar workers who lost their jobs because rich people stopped buying boats. a lessen perhaps for the onging debate these days over taxes, jenna. jenna: the debate goes on, doug. we appreciate very much. doug mckelway, number three of a series of ten. we'll see you back, doug. thank you very much. >> okay. jenna: we have a fox news alert when it comes to the economy. doug led into this very nicely. we have the decision from the federal bank, the reserve on the interest rates and affects so many things from line of credit to credit cards. rates are unchanged at this time. that is not necessarily the headline coming out of this federal reserve meeting. i want to give you this one. well, there is two that we should mention. number one the federal reserve says the economy is growing more slowly than it expected. so, there has been some concern about economic growth because of higher gas

prices and that is something that ben bernanke has been speaking about. also really quickly here the stimulus program, the bond buying that the fed has been doing, despite the fact they say the economy is slowing down they will stop that program and basically see what happens next. we'll have more news on this. ben bernanke will be speaking a little later in the day. jon? jon: right now america is waiting to hear what the president has to say about bringing u.s. troops home from afghanistan. mr. obama set to address the nation tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern. california congressman duncan hunter is a republican on the armed services committee and joins us now. washington congressman adam smith is the committee's ranking democrat. congressman smith, to you first, what are you hoping to hear from the president? >> well i think we want to see more details on his plan for the drawdown in afghanistan. there is pretty broad consensus we're going to have a drawdown. the question is how quick. the goal is to be done by 2014 but what does that ramp look like? i think tonight the

president has the opportunity to lay out for us the progress that we've made, what that progress means for our future plans and what his specific goals are in terms of drawing down our troops. we had some success in afghanistan but the costs continues to be enormous. i think everybody in america wants to get to the point where we can bring our troops home. jon: well the cost is enormous, congressman hunter, as you know, but the argument is if you draw down too quickly and walk away from it now, then everything we've spent so far, especially the lives that have been given, that become as waste. what do you say? >> absolutely true but there's a very small minority in congress i think that wants to pull out totally. the majority of us recognize our long-term national security interests in afghanistan. what i'm curious about tonight with the announcement is if we're going to draw down troops are we going to change strategy too? are we going from a counter insurgency strategy to more of a counter terrorism strategy because we'll have

fewer people? in order for counterinsurgency to work right you have to have boots on the grounded a a lot of boots on the ground. as we craw down in troop mum numbers and strength will we make objection thifs more attainable? i think we can do that. we can make sure the bad guys in afghanistan don't turn their attention to our homeland by using fewer troops. that will take the president chenging the objectives and making them clear-cut to the american people as we draw down troops. as we draw them down we have to change the strategy i think in order for any type of drawdown to succeed. jon: congressman smith, i have read and you're closer obviously to the intelligence on all of this than i am so i want to get your take on this. i have read that the pentagon's commanders essentially said to the president, we would like to have two more full fighting seasons before we start a serious drawdown. if that is their advice and i guess i'm asking you to confirm that, would you essentially opt for the same kind of plan, take a smaller number of troops out now and

a larger number at the end of next we're? >> i can't confirm that directly but certainly the military is always very cautious. they were cautious in iraq as well. we had a hearing in the armed services committee about the drawdown in iraq. i guess we're down to a 50 or 46,000 troops in iraq. we're hoping to get down to zero by end of the year. some commanders thought that pace was too quick but iraq has been able to stand. remember in afghanistan they have trained enormous number of afghan military and police. i agree with duncan, what is the mission, how many boots do you have on the ground and our hope is to increase the number of boots on the ground and we have done that. we need a realistic plan for the drawdown but we'll have to to start proceeding forward both because of the need in terms of cost. we can't be there forever. the afghans have to take responsibility. jon: congressman hunter, i know you're a afghan veteran yourself. is this a situation where the president has to press the pentagon and say no, we

have to do it a little quicker than you guys want to? >> he does. with respect to our military leadership they're still inside what i call the military box. it is hard for them to get out of that. they will press for more troops and press for more time. they will show we have made successes but like adam said we haven't made as much success as we would have liked after this much amount of time and this much amount of money and as many lives have been spent over there. so, that's, that's where he is at. he will have to mollify his military leadership and mollify his base too. that is what i see him doing here. trying to make everybody happy. jon: congressman hunter from the republican side, congressman smith from the democratic side, good to get both of your views on today. thank you. >> thanks. jon: we'll hear what the president has to say at 8:00 tonight. jenna: 8:00 eastern time. as mike emanuel said, about ten minutes a. a lot to say in that amount of time. our next reporter got an inside look at a revolution tearing apart one country

but what they built to fight the government looks more like props from a movie than modern military vehicles. this you have got to see and it is up next.

>> coming up on "america live", there's a big problem in the new health care reform law that even its creators did not know was in there. we'll find out if it can be fixed. also a new street line honoring fallen heroes of 9/11 is under attack by atheists. we'll debate that. and you will "meet the parents" of one heroic soldier killed in afghanistan. we'll ask what they think the president should say tonight. i will see you in 15 minutes. jon: too libya now rebels are being bombarded by heavy shelling in the city of misurata. there is not much progress in their fight to overthrow the qaddafi government but not for lack of trying. rick leventhal is streaming live from misurata where the rebels are making due what

whatever they have. >> more on that in a second, jon. a update here in misurata, more rockets fired in the city landing between us and the port of miss roughta. most likely fired by qaddafi forces on the eastern front. the heaviest fighting is still to our west about 15 miles from here where at least 15 fighters were killed and more than 60 wounded in just the past two days. these men don't have body armor or helmets but they have a lot of heart. many of the wounded are returning to the battle as soon as they're patched up. these opposition fighters are also losing a lot of gun trucks so they're making more of them. and today we visited a warehouse in an industrial section of town, hidden behind high walls and a gate where welders and machinists are turning ordinary pickup trucks into armored fighting machines. they're repurposing old pieces of iron and steel and car parts, cutting and welding shields for the front of vehicles to protect engines and iron walls to

guard the shooters in the back. repurposing anti-aircraft guns, heavy machine guns, artillery cannons in the back of these land rovers and toyotas. the works, by the way, some of them former electricians, truck drivers, students, learning as they go. they're adapting and refining upgrade when they figure out what works and what doesn't. we visited another warehouse where fighters bringing trucks back from the front lines to get the big guns cleaned and ammo cleaned and all of it serviced and reload and prepare to return to the fight again. it is very professional operation. and very, very, busy. one fighter whose normally an electrical engineer told us that he fires his weapon, an anti-aircraft gun from 8:00 in the morning, or 6:00 in the morning until 8:00 at night and returns to the front every day, jon. and says that he is not afraid to die because he believes he is doing this for the right reasons. jon: the tenacity is absolutely amazing. rick leventhal in miss roughta. thank you. jenna: back closer to home,

new poll numbers painting a decidedly mixed picture for the president as far as his re-election. we have insights from larry sabato. some perspective we should keep in mind. plus a convenience store clerk fighting back. now police need your help catching this brazen bandit. we'll show you the video and harris has the details just ahead.

jon: in minnesota right now police are on the hunt for an armed thug getting more than he bargained for when he picks on the wrong store clerk. harris is here with details. harris? >> yeah. i hope this guy really, really turns out to be a hero in his hometown because i tell you he is definitely one. double a avenue store, a grocery store, a little

minute my mart in st. paul, minute sow society. he was locking up. people are trying to identify the guy. it happened earlier in the month on june 8th. he was just locking up. as he was there, closing the store at 10:00 p.m., somebody came from behind, forced his way in there. at gunpoint we're told. and as they fought over the gun the store clerk grabbed a can much tuna on off the shelf and started killing hitting the guy in the head and beat him down. as two fighting over the gun got near the door again, somehow or another, this clerk took a beating but he will okay in this whole scuffle. got the guy who was assaulting him out and locked the door. the cops were called. he was able to identify this guy. there is, they are looking for him. we do have a tip line. but they're going to use this video, hopefully with the public's help. the guy had on a mask. but the store clerk was able to rip of mask off in this whole thing. the suspect is described as a black male, 18 to 20 years old, 5'7" to five feet nine

with a medium build, short curly hair. wearing a black hooded shirt, possibly a sweatshirt, blue jeans and black mask he managed to rip off. 651, 266-5650 is the tip line. we should tell you this guy, apparently the store clerk, jon, has a history of being a bodyguard at the united states embassy in his native country of algeria. jon: ah. >> that guy picked on the wrong store clerk on the wrong day. back to you. jon: yeah old tuna can to the head defense. >> it worked. jon: all right. glad he is okay. harris, thank you. jenna: a new poll may give president obama some reason for pause though we're early ahead of the 2012 election the bloomberg national poll showing more americans say they are worse off now than when the president took office back in early 2009. the margin, 44 to 34. it is not the first time someone has asked this

question. take a listen. >> next tuesday, all of you will go to the polls and stand there in the polling place and make a decision. i think when you make that decision it might be well if you would ask yourself, are you better off than you were four years ago? jenna: reagan went on to win the 1980 election president carter of course. larry sabato is the director for center for politics at the university of virginia. larry, you pointed us to that moment you say reagan really crystalized the message for voters. the question as we look ahead for 2012. is it going to be about that message or is it going to be who now delivers it? what's more important? >> i think it's more important retrospectively. most voters are actually smarter than economists and political analysts. they don't try to predict the future. they know they don't know the future. they do know the past. they know whether as reagan

put it beautifully in that debate just a week ahead of the election, are they better off than they were four years ago? they're able to make that evaluation. they're able to make that judgment whenever an incumbent president is running for re-election which is what we're going to have in 2012. that was a week ahead of the 1980 election. if pessimism had been a stock we all would have been buying it like crazy. the same is true today. if pessimism were a stock we would all be buying it like crazy but the election is still 16 months away. jenna: as someone that takes such a close look at politics on a daily basis, larry, how quickly do we change our opinion? are americans as fickle to say one week, i'm much worse off than i was before the president took office and then the next week completely change our mind? are we that fickle? can it be a matter of a week difference how we feel about something like that? >> no. it, public opinion can be very fickle about some subjects that the public knows nothing about.

everybody knows something about the economy. they know whether they have a job. they know whether other people in their families are employed. they know what they're paying at the gas pump and at the grocery store. these opinions are more stable. they, evolve slowly over time, and that's why the days are trickling past. the week, themonts and, president obama has to hope things change, you know, within a relatively few months in order for people to really feel better, to have confidence in a brighter future because right now people are extremely pessimistic about what's happening now and for their own families. jenna: i'm going to have to wrap up here but at the same time when asked in the same poll if they agree with the republicans look at the economy, americans are still choosing the president's look on the economy versus the republicans. is there anybody, larry, you see emerging as the leader of the gop to deliver the messages about being better or worse off than when president obama took office?

>> only the presidental nominee can do that. you can't have congressional leaders setting forth a contrary vision. people pick obama's plan because really only one they understand. when you get a republican presidential nominee you will have a contrary plan. jenna: that will be interesting to watch for larry. always nice to have you, sir. thank you so much. >> thanks, generics a lot of you are weighing in on our must-see moment of the day. last time i checked with harris she said it's a thai. what do you want to see? get the tie broken. that's next ♪

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jenna: well with, it's that time. the must-see moment of the day that our viewers chose democratly. >> reporter: they were very undecisive. this is not scientific, but they ended up wanting to see the revelations about t-rex by 38%. and here is the. the little arms that were on the dinosaurs -- jon: